The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
Edgar Award Winner for Young Adult 2018
copyright date: February 2017

Wow!  This book was so revealing of the issues that teens face. Racism in America in this book is so transparent when it comes to the main character Star and what she had to witness seeing her best friend Khalil. The twist of this story when I first read it was that Starr really lived in two worlds. One world is the neighborhood she lived in and its poverty and problems and the all white rich area school she attended each day. The author bases this story on a real life killing of an African American by a police officer. Thomas lends her voice through Starr her character that she creates in her novel. Starr becomes really upset within the story line because her best friend Khalil is portrayed as a gang member who is bad in society which is not true and the police officer that shot him is portrayed as a good person. Starr finds her voice within this story which leads to many struggles as a teen. Starr's father who is in jail becomes a big character in the story by getting out of jail which he went to cover up one of the main gang leaders named King and tries to start over within the area of Garden Heights. Starr loses friendships during this time because she becomes a voice for Garden Heights which she is no longer living in.
I would definitely use this book if there wasn't as much profanity. This is the only negative I found to this book. I love that Thomas brought out the character of Starr as a female who becomes a strong voice and stands up for what she believes in. I would recommend this book to my teen students but also have them look up the author's reasons for writing this book about history and connect it. After reading this book, I found this video and it really connected some dots for me.

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